we saw a trend in the united states. while there was a lot of attention around it, it didn't affect prices very much. >> i think it would have a modest impact, the uk is not the u.s. it's not reserved currency. if you look at the down grade of france, then we did see sort of a modest impact. i think given how important the aaa rating has been to this conservative government, it would actually be a negative. the bigger picture, the critical moment is rising treasury yields. >> michael, thanks for coming along. i appreciate your time today. michael joining us there. >>> meantime, coming up on the show, beccy, president obama discusses options to bring down the costs of energy including tapping emergency reserves. >>> welcome to >>> welcome to the show. here in the united states equity markets reach multiyear highs. the nasdaq registering its highest close since november of 2000. >>> in europe the imf prepares to put euros to the bailout. investors are expected to give strong support to the spanish debt auction. >>> and in

let's start in the united states. since the bond auction results in europe have come out, we've seen the futures go slightly lower. looking at a lower open on wall street. if the markets were to open now, the dow would be lower by merely 17, nasdaq by nearly 4 and the s&p 500 lower by nearly 2. this after a mix willed session yesterday but we did recover from earlier declines. worries over the weak adp number setting the stage for tomorrow's jobs report. investors on edge. energy and financials were the worst performing sectors. how is it in europe? >> loads to digest. in the equity markets, we're off the highs of the session, but we are higher nonetheless for each of the major markets, as well. ftse 100 up by 0.3%. and we have dipped below the 1% levels that we were at when we last checked in on the markets, but the dax still higher by 0.8%. and in spain, levels of just over 1% to the good for the spanish trade. let's have a lack, tc look at t markets. we've had results of the french and spanish debt auctions. in ger

a big issue here, oil prices impacting the gas prices in the united states. what are the energy ministers saying there about the future of oil prices as we discussed in the past? there is some interest in some of the countries keeping those prices lower. >> reporter: absolutely, jackie. it's a great lineup if you think about it. energy ministers for more than 80 countries, dialogue between producers and consumers. the reality is that the heavyweights and the bigger economies aren't really talking, at least the delegations aren't. this morning basically scrambling for some reaction to what's going on here in these meetings. and so far, for the most part, we have not been able to really get a lot of feedback from the individual ministers he especia on the supply side. i did speak to an oil minister and as much as they're not a member of opec, not a significant importer or exporter of oil, he says $100 a barrel is fair in this part of the world and that $125 a barrel for brent was a bit high. he was worried about demand destruction and said that the geopolitical

the united states as a destination for selling our lng to united states. but there is also the direction of flows from the united states to europe our main market and to asia, as well. but at the moment, what's happening, it looks like that shil gas boom will create a lot of problems for the domestic producers in the united states because prices in united states are not sustainable, are not able to support investment cycle in the . >> and just china, the plan is for china to be a long term partner for russian oil and gas production. much i guess will depend on on getting the pipeline built and developed. where are we in that process? >> it's not so much the problem of a pipeline. it's a problem that we still are not able to negotiate a price that meets our expectations. the problem comes from the fact that in china, prices for natural gas are regulated. the current price levels are well below our expectations. you mentioned shale gas. i think that shale gas and costs related to shale gas will enable our chinese partners to understand that we in fact are of

overall, existing home sales in the united states were up almost 8% year-on-year. prices have risen nationally for four consecutive months which is very good news. the data we got yesterday indicates that permits compared to last year are up almost 30%. all of which indicates that the market is beginning to gain some momentum. but there's still headwinds or at least some things, some legacies of the past that have to be worked out, not the least of which is that the number of mortgages that are seriously delinquent, eat ear payment hasn't been made in 90 days or they are in the foreclosure process while down from the peak still is elevated. that's a shadow inventory that will have to be taken care of over the next year or so. so the resilience of prices will be constrained by that phenomenon. >> depressed homeowner activity, strained mortgages will be with us. at the margin what difference does the housing market make or can make to the u.s. economy? >> for most of this recovery going back now two full years, the housing sector has remained e either a drag or nonco

they're now looking at taking it back to the united states. they seem to be saying, we're going to shun the asian investor. >> yeah, no, that seems a bit odd given the lack of success the f-1s had in the u.s. as well. that's a story been playing for a number of years where it's going to list, manu talked about listing in asia as well. look, there's obviously a lot of money here. there's a growing demand for international listings in the asian time zone. so, it's a trend that's going to continue but there's going to be hiccups along the way. one deal is not going to make or break the trend. >> to what extent do you think the trouble that's happening across europe is impacting this market? obviously, not just from the broader sense of weak growth, but what kind of funding conditions and changes are you seeing? >> well, i think there has -- you know, investors are very much international. there's no way they have decoupled. europe is a big burden on everybody. how it's going to play out. it's going to impact the companies trying to list themselve

i'm jackie deangelis in the united states. >> and that's it for my end. i'm chloe cho here in asia. >> and i'm louisa bojesen in europe. have a fantastic weekend. >>> it's jobs friday. economists are looking for a better nonfarm payroll number than the previous month, but not as good as we have been getting before last month. and facebook hits the road. the company wants to wooen investors as it tries to raise more than $10 billion. great piece in the "journal" shows these guys have so much money. and berkshire hathaway faithful descending on omaha. becky is there. she brings us her conversation with warren buffett. it's friday, may 4th, 2012. "squawk box" begins right now.

helped late in the session by that nonmanufacturing data out of the united states. it will be about growth. as far as the bond markets are concerned today you see the 1.8 marks, yields on ten-year btp is where we were this time yesterday. gilt yield slightly higher. treasury yields today as we go to super tuesday just below that key 2% mark. we talked about the rba. certainly we've seen more pressure on commodity currencies. euro up against the aussie dollar. aussie dollar is down to 1.0617. that falling in commodity currency we suffered more in the last week or so has just helped the yen a bit. it's also tried to help out the euro against the dollar somewhat. euro/dollar steady. we keep our eyes on the oil prices. we have a discussion coming up off those negotiations between obama and netanyahu. brent below the 124 level. nymex back over 106, nearly to 107, christine. >>> ross, the big story, of course, watching what's happening in china. we have top ministers, advisers there speaking positively will europe on the second day of beijing's annual parliamentary sessio

here in the united states, the dow rallies for a 7th consecutive day. but will today's parallel end fuel on the positive sentiment on wall street? >> ahead of the u.s., fresh highs but government debt yields are continuing to move higher. >> india talks tough on economic reform but unvails an ambitious amid inflation fears and a political crisis. >> you're whaping worldwide exchange with christine. i'm jackie. great to have you with us this morning. let's start here in the united states and take a look at the future to see how we're poised for trade on wall street. it looks like it's going to be a mixed open. the dow would be lowered by 6.5 points. the nasdaq highered by one and change and the s&p 500 lowered by one, this, of course, after a positive session on wall street. we saw that nasdaq and the s&p and the dow all hitting 52 week highs. the financials were fuelling a little bit of the rally yesterday. some of that post-stress test. we saw the utilities to the downside. how does it look over in london? >> well, remember, we hit fresh 2012 closing l

state in the united states. the united states is the first modern monetary union. and it was established on that principle. that is the first bank of the united states assumed all the debts. the revolutionary war debts and the debts from the confederation of every state. and it was a hard deal to make and they made the deal. and from that point forward it was clear that the full faith and credit of the united states stood behind the full faith and credit of every state. >> it's pretty clear things like the euro bond and the idea of suggesting the end, the very end of the process and companies have to competitively devalue themselves in union before we can get there. are they -- can we do it that way around? >> if we're very lucky. the fact is that's playing a game of chicken with global investors. the bet here is that global investors will be patient and say, well, eventually they're going to get there. that's why a disorder hadly default in greece is quite dangerous because it can communicate that the eurozone is not going to get there soon enough and then, you kn

inflation in the united states is still barely subdued. i think the core inflation rate will slip from just above the 2% target to just below that 2% target. so the main message is that inflation is not a big issue in the u.s. at the moment and what the fed is really worried about is that high unemployment rate and not the risk of massively hire inflation. >> all right. we'll have to leave it there. thank you so much, paul dales. >> and something completely different, sought korean defense officials say we can expect more provocative actions after today's rocket failure. likely to try a second missile launch to boost internal solidarity after north korea fired a rocket but it broke up just minutes after blasting up. the act being condemned as a breach of u.n. security rules. at the same time, north korea's lead leader with a massive rally. these are live pictures. >>> coming up next on the show, google's move to preserve cash and consolidate control in the hands of it founders is raising a lot of eyebrows in the states, but should investor

what we're seeing is a lot of money coming into the united states. and domestically, there's about $220 billion that was spent on commercial real estate in 2011. $20 billion of that was from offshore. a lot of it came from european entities who were looking to escape the eurozone crisis, but there are also quite a bit of middle easterners as well as other country, monies coming out of china, et cetera, looking to be placed here. >> okay. so when we look at the commercial property market here domestically in the united states, there's was a little bit of hesitancy to get into it before, but what you're telling me basically is the fundamentals look better and this is appearing to be a little bit of a safe haven. >> it's absolutely a safe haven and what's happening that's interesting is they're somewhat bifurcation. they're seeing tremendous activity for a limited quantity of product. and the other end of the spectrum, those that have distress, which is very opportunistic, we're also seeing quite a bit of interest and activity. the core in the middle, w

headlines from around the globe this morning, here in the united states, the battle lines over the nation's budget are being drawn again today as republican lawmakers get set to unveil a new plan to cut the deficit. >> metro shares in the green despite falling well short of expectations. >> and this asia, stocks head south on china growth concerns after bhp billiton sees flatter chinese demand for iron ore. >> you're watching "worldwide exchange." great to have you with us this morning. let's take a look at the u.s. futures and see how we're setting up for trade on wall street. dow would be lower by 23, nasdaq by about 5 1/2 and the s&p 500 lower by 3. this after stocks finished modestly higher on monday. of course apple's plan to return cash to shareholders and its stock buy back as well as positive m&a news gave us positive sentiment. we saw the tech it and financial sectors leading the way forward. the only sector in the red yesterday, utilities. >> yeah, but despite that relatively positive andover, take a look at how the asian session faired. quite a lot of red except for the indian ma

in the united states, can temperature actually filter through in to the real economy. it's hard to say. you have asset price effects, you have confidence effects, a greater appreciation of risk assets while you're flooding the market with liquidity. was any of that a factor behind will improvements in the labor market? very tangentially. what's really going on is a huge a austerity in europe and it's difficult to see where the next bout of growth is coming from. >> so you said we did get some of the peripheral european markets as a result, but not pore you chew gallon. so does that mean we'll have to get another three year to keep it going? >> again nothing is inevitable, but all policies whether mond monetary or fiscal, the difficulty comes when you try to stop them. it's a bad thing generally to snatch a sweetie away from a child. you wean them off generally. so i think that's the more likely way that it will happen. so not permanent, but semipermanent some of these measures. >> do you see the euro drifting much lower from here? >> conventional economic wisdom says i

squh. >> and also an election here in the united states, as well. when we talk about eliciting change and bringing about some of the reforms that we're looking for here, do you worry that the lame duck congress, the situation that we're in, will sort of stall progress here and stall our recovery? >> actually, i'm counting on them to be our hero. the avengers was a box office bonanza. in real life, it looks like the lame ducks are our best shot of having a super hero for our economy because after the elect when our elected officials aren't worried about how a particular vote will immediately affect their leblt ability might actually do the work we hired them to. the irony is that a number of the people we'll be counting on have just been fired if they didn't get reelected. so probably not a great way to run a country or a company, but the reality is we have such as ben bernanke called massive financial cliff looming over our head come january 1st with all the things that need to be done. bush tax cuts, everyone knows the list. that it's our best hope

i'm jackie deangelis in the united states. lots more coverage of the west. >> coming up, "squawk box" with a countdown. whatever hasp, we hope you have a profitable day. >>> good morning. dispels iphone feefrms empire under attack. news corp.'s rupert murdoch facing a firing of questions today. and the ball is in ben bernanke's court. the fed chairman preparing to make a policy announcement today and then face reporters. it's wednesday, april 25th, 21 1 2012. "squawk box" begins right now.

they drive a large portion of their revenues outside of the united states. one example that we've seen oracle in which the company generates about 30% of its revenues out in europe and in europe the some saw a decline of 7% of revenues. outside of apple the tech sector is not expected to have a strong quarter. >> when we look ahead to third quarter, to fourth quarter, both in terms much guidance and potentially to revisions as we're starting to get in the house how might those the direction of those impact trading? >> i certainly think the markets will be focused on guidance going ford particularly for the fourth quarter in 201. we've seen this every quarter but this quarter it's particularly important because if you look at the expectations, third quarter is expected to be another weak quarter in terms of earnings growth. expected to see 2% growth. for the fourth quarter analysts are looking for about 14% growth with double digit growth in a number of sectors. we've just stoortd see that number come down in the last month or so so i think it's something the

in the united states, we run it about as clean as we possibly can. these foreign corruption act practices will be prosecuted by the department of just sis. so if you're a general docounse waking up in a fortune 500 company, what are we doing wrong and how can we stop it. we both know this has been going on. it didn't just start happening at walmart ten years ago. my guess is it's happening fairly rampant around the world. >> and we've seen some cases of this in the past. siemens, halliburton have dealt with the issues. and the investigations are expensive and extensive for these companies. how do you think the walmart case will play out in terms of a settlement that they might potentially have to pay and how that might impact the company? >> when we were talking at the break that a lot of the officials that are responsible for this bribery case are either leading walmart in the midst of retiring or have already left walmart. so it will be interesting to see who will get tagged senior levels here as it relates to this particular situation. but, yes, i

let's start here in the united states and take a look at u.s. futures. see how we're poised on trade. it does look like a mixed open at this point. no clear direction just yet but the markets were to open now 0 the dow would be higher by eight points, the nasdaq lower by three and the s&p 500 higher by just about two. this after u.s. equities finished modestly higher on friday. of course we have an improving jobs picture boosting sentiment in the united states but that was tempered by the isda ruling a credit event had occurred in it greece. nine of the ten sectors were higher. the leaders, financials and consumer discretionary, that one sector lower, beccy, was energy. how are things shaping up in europe? >> we're struggling for direction here, too. this is the stoxx 600 behind me. this market in europe did open lower but has since moved back to a level we can best call unchanged. green, just barely, no clear direction either way. let's have a look at where the individual markets are headed. the ftse is just a fraction lower. the dax is just a fraction

the other thing is you need the data to hold up in the united states. because the global stock market rally is predicated on a sustained recovery in the united states. >> remember, ross, you have earnings right in you that are at record lows. the s&p 500 is earning $104 a share. we can see it slip a little bit and the other thing to keep in mind is that the lowering of expectations that we get from these companies happen every quarter. sarbanes/oxley has almost made it a necessity on the part of a ceo. you cannot talk up your company anymore. so i love the fact that everybody right now has their expectations down and low and more than heekly we'll be pleasantly surprised. i think that global growth story is still very much intact. we talk about china slowing. 7% is sustainable. you don't want to see growth rate over 10% or 11%. so all of that, and i guess what i'm traying to say is when the markets really heat up, those of us that are bullish get concerned. when they slow down a little bit, that actually keeps us bullish and i think that's really why we

the united states would still have the strong dollar policy. a weaker dollar will help as well but i think the dollar benefits because some of the other currencies are either, "a," in very bad shape fundamentally or, "b," aggressively trying to keep their currencies weak. >> and that's a great point. thank you for that. george will stay with us. coming up next on the show. we'll look at the trading day ahead on wall street. among the companies reporting today, we have aig, target, sears and the gap. and coming up on "squawk box" we have stephen roach, richard fish er and timothy parker. make sure you stay with us. >>> good morning and welcome back to the program. let's take a look at the u.s. futures and see how we're shaping up today. it does look like the markets will will open higher, if the markets were to open now the dow would be higher by 17 is points. the nasdaq by about five and the s&p 500 up by just about two points. of course this after a down day of trade yesterday with the dow down about 27 points, some of the losses there, walmar

let's start here in the united states where we'll take a look at the u.s. futures and see how we're setting up for trade on wall street. it does look like a lower day today, lower by ten points. the nasdaq slightly above the flat line and the s&p one point below the flat line, this after a strong day on wall street. yesterday the dow up 72 points. the nasdaq 27 points higher. an 11-year high there. there were light volumes. investors still worried about greece and looking to that moody's downgrade as a risk as well. it looks like that sentiment is weighing on 0 the markets now. how does it look over in london? >> we're better than we were an hour ago, right now, so advancers to decliners matching on the dow jones stoxx 600 so that means we have a pretty flat european stocks. up for the ftse 100. an hour ago down a quarter of a percent. we're just down four points. inflation numbers as expect ed, 3.6% as the hike from last year came out of the equation. big energy price hikes also coming out the next few months so that rate should continue to fall further. x

it is that different in the united states. if the fed launches more qe it won't impact anybody in main street america. why should that have any impact on the election? >> why should they do it if it doesn't impact main street america. >> that's an entirely separate question. that's about the efficacy of the policy. not whether it has political ramifications. >> it does, though. american elections, perhaps more so than british elections do turn on big things like the economy. and if they ease now, and the economy starts to grow and the unemployment rate even it just ticks down from 8.3 to 8.2, to 8.1 in successive months to november 6th that could make a big difference. >> but that's their job? >> it is their job. >> you're saying they shouldn't do their job. >> i'm saying i don't know what they should do and if i know what they should be doing i would be sitting on a yacht. >> they have other options. there's an argument there needs to be a lot more imaginative and the burden should come on the government than the central bank

united states are getting better. i think the future -- i think we can say that we see the light at the end of the tunnel. >> all right. the light at the end of the tunnel. and i have to say, kelly, it has stopped raining. the sun has come out, so maybe a bit of light here in rome, as well. back over to you. >> carolin ross, thanks so much for that. bank of italy just out figures showing a decline on private sector years year on year in october. moving on now for the time being, canada has given china's state-run energy firm cnoc the okay to buy nexen. >> some are calling this pivot towards china after a lot of back and forth. ottawa over the weekend approved china's largest foreign takeover ever. cnooc has been given the green light to acquire canadian energy company nexen for $15.1 billion. now, the cnooc deal is the one getting all the attention. here is why. it would give a huge china eeps state run enterprise a firm foothold in canada's oil sands. third only behind saudi arabia and venezuela. it was not an easy d

there's no need for a further round of quantitative easing in the united states. that's the view of republican presidential hopeful mitt romney. romney said it's time to allow the markets to take their natural course. >> i think as you look back at qe2, the second round of stimul stimulus, it had very little positive effect. i don't think there's a reason for us to further inflate our money supply. my own view is that this is time for the fed to pull back a little bit and let the market recover on its own. >> romney also dismissed the buffett tax rule as just a gimmick saying that this type of political posturing is not going to get america strong again. all right, let's bring it back to you, bill. reactions to romney's comments there. >> i'm all over it. i think that's great. i hope he has a loud and clear voice. i think that's a big part of the problem in the world today. you don't have clarity on tax issues. you don't have clarity on the spend side. we haven't seen a budget for three years from the senate. it's a mez. mess. the problem in the world today, if wa

let's start here in the united states. take a look at the futures and see how we're shaping up for trade on wall street. it does look like a mixed open if the markets were to open now the dow would be higher by ten. the nasdaq lower by two points and the s&p 500 just above the flat line. this after u.s. equities finished higher on the back of that global rally. a couple of reasons for that, some optimism on the greek debt swap deal. also that "wall street journal" article about further quantitative easing still having an impact and the smaller contraction in japan's q4 gdp number helping the markets as well. ross, how is it bearing in china right now? >> seasonally unadjusted fourth quarter 2011 is gdp contracted 7.5% and that's worse, worse, than the flash estimate of 7%. so the greek economy contracting in the fourth quarter by 7.5% which has been the point here on the day that we're going to get a psi agreement for the next bailout money. the point is with growth like that, with the contraction, we don't even mention th

and jackie now joins us from the united states, as well, with chris even. hello. >> good morning, guys. happy early weekend to everybody, as well, and happy easter weekend coming up. excited for that. meantime, interesting story here. google wants to help you see the world in a whole new light. the company has unveiled a prototype of a high tech glasses that could ekt connect people toefrg you need on the internet. even directions from google maps. they're still being tested, but google put a mock demo video up on youtube of what you might experience. >> oh, man, really? sweet. remind me to buy tickets for tonight. where's the music section? >> so you're just living in an augmented reality where you have all of these things at your fingertips. i don't know if i want to live in an augmented reality. >> i work in an august theed reality every day. so i don't know -- the thing is what i could do is i could get you to wear the glasses and you could go and live my life and i could just lie in a vegetable at a time at home and you could get things for me. maybe t

hasn't seen the scale of adjustment in the united states. as well you have the fiscal consolidation that's rallying at over 4% of gdp this year which is truly extraordinary. in the uk and here the fiscal adjustment is running at around 2% of gdp. and this all suggests that the economy is going to be very negative this year and when you have negative gdp and you have flat gdp that unemployment tends to rise. all that can be hoped for is the government does push ahead with the structural reform measures and that might then encourage firms it to take on new workers because still in spain you have this big issue -- there's a very, very protected labor market and then there's the unprotected temporary workers. it's the temporary workers don't get enough training, they don't go to fund specific capital and really it's not operating very efficiently. >> stephane has a question. >> yes? >> reporter: julian, after the reform of the banking sector the spanish government is going to announce at the end of next week a reform of the labor market. what do

so, you know, we look at the united states. i think a great deal of business people's concern is when they look to washington, d.c. and listen to the debates that go on capitol hill they think to themselves deep down in their heart of hearts can these people really deal with the issues we're facing. >> yeah. >> now the good news is exporters from the united states are in some of the strongest position they've been in a long time. exports out of the united states have provided lift to our economy. nevertheless, the job creation in the united states is not what it should be nor should our gdp, nor is our gdp growth. but the small businesses are struggling. >> carly, you're staying with us for the rest of the hour. a very good thing indeed. talking about,000 rein in your dent or country's debt. i'm looking at some flashes on the wire again. the french government, they've signed off on a decree to lower the retirement age to 60 in certain circumstances according to the minister being quoted by reuters. the first decree to lower the

let's start here in the united states. take a look at the futures and see how we're set to open on wall street. the positive momentum in asia and europe today is trickling down here. the dow looks to be higher by 61 points. the nasdaq by 12.6 and the s&p 500 looks like it will open higher by six and change. ross, does it still look as strong on your end? >> yeah. we're about 8 to 1 outpacing decline e decliners as we have done for most of the show. so here we are about two and a half hours into the trading session trying to pull back the losses from yesterday. the ftse 100 up three-quarters. the cac up about 1% as well. the ftse only up about 2% for the month. xetra dax up. in focus today british chip maker a.r.m. with earnings well above expectations. profit up 45%. this is the company whose technology powers apple's products amongst others. it's confident it will continue to gain market share. the stock up 4.7%. bskyb shares up 3%. it reported an 8% rise in its net profit earnings boosted by new base of television and br

let's's start in the united states. futures were higher just a little while ago, but we have turned negative. the dow could open lower by 16, the nasdaq by nearly 2 1/2 and the s&p 500 by 1. this after some mixed data coming out of the eurozone that ross will talk about more, but still i do want to talk about the quarter. really strong quarter end on friday for the stocks here in the united states despite the fact that the indices were mixed. we saw first quarter gain the best since 1998. so going to be interesting if we can continue to see that momentum trickle into the u.s. markets in the second quarter or if it's time for it a pull back. >> we're near the session lows. an hour ago, we had advances outpacing decliners by 7:3 and that's nearly now completely the other way around. and we keep our eyes on weaker sectors. weakest areas are italy and spain. those markets down 1.5%. ftse and dax, just remind you where we stand. ftse 100 down 0.2%. ftse up around 3.5% for the first quarter. xetra dax pretty flat. up 17.5% fo

if you're just joining us from the united states, a good morning do you. we're getting iuorio inflation report. this is where we think future policy is going go. they're saying now the inflation rate will be below target for a good part of the forecast per d period. this is over the next two years. they talk about the end of 2012. and it's more likely to be below target in 2013. we. sterling edging up slightly. the sudden pace of the decline is incertain. they're up. the forecast assumed no rate hike before the second quarter of 2014. an unchanged q.e. they remain weak in the near term. nick, your immediate reactions to that? >> well, the -- >> go ahead. >> yeah, sorry. the uk inflation forecast hasn't been the best way to steer the last couple of years since they've ever come remotely close. i mean obviously the good news has been that we're comparing it. that's what's got the headline rate drop as the backdrops out. but what the most likely candidate for spoiling the story is the oil price. >> absolutely. we'll just hand it over to mervin king. we'll sta

the nasdaq a second daythe united states. the worst day of the year, in fact, for stocks, and gist want to high light the dow is down more than 200 points. the s&p moving below its moving day, spooking traders. that's the first time we saw that since december. also the nasdaq closing below 3,000 as well and some of these renewed fears over europe. also worries about quantitative easing and whether or not we'll see it in our markets, giving us a little bit of trouble. but at the same time it looks like if the futures are any indication, the buyers might be back in the market today. how's the picture by you? >> we have seen it. they hit, 568 yesterday but we had a very disappointing -- the impact of the high yields, the move up in yields. very disappointing. t-bill auction. t-bill auction. not as important as other auctions. nevertheless, three-month, the 12-month average t-bill set at 2.84%. so that auction, although we, as i say, moved lower from yesterday's yields, the auction numbers aren't particularly great. we got the te

you've got a fiscal cliff in the united states. then of course, you've got here where everybody's kicking the can forward, which will probably happen in the united states as well with the fiscal cliff. >> so, actually, it's not just one -- >> it's not, no. >> it's a global -- >> absolutely. >> -- issue. and is no one deciding there's -- what we're saying is no one is deciding, and showing some weakness. if you're strong and big, there's opportunity to go and invest because you know at some point things are going to turn around, and when they do, i'll be the bigger player. you're suggesting no one's doing that. >> nobody's doing that, but that's -- >> why? >> because it's human nature. you know, boards today are incredibly conservative. you know there was this train wreck three years ago, and there was this mad dash for cash. everybody remembers that. if you look at american companies today, they're sitting on $1 trillion of cash. we're sitting on a lot of cash. so boards are -- >> is cash now, is that just the new normal? is there

in the united states it has a dual mandate. price stability and full employment. and it's done neither. and so i'm glad they're finally tying those actions together. >> marc, fair point. what would you do as a policy maker? >> well, first of all, if i were mr. bernanke, for sure i would resign after having messed up the u.s. as badly as mr. greenspan and mr. bernanke have done over the last 15 years. and mr. bernanke before he was fed chairman, he was one of the principal architects of ultra expansionary monetary policies, never paying any attention to credit growths that led to the housing bubble. and if i had messed up this badly, i would for sure resign. but secondly, if you you really want to have an expansionary mop taker po monetary policy that helps the man on the street, should you do what sheila bair proposed, namely send each household a check for $5 million interest rate free. i would go as far as to say send them each $10 million free as a gift and put it on the balance sheet of the treasury and the fed and that would boost consumption temporary. don't

and balance of risks right now is worse in the united states? >> we had in europe a worst-case scenario priced in. what i've seen from last week is a nice move. i think that leaves less worries about this. earnings will be trimmed back in europe. as european valuation are relatively low. it's a big calculation. but if you have to be in equities, be in european equities. >> investment grades and high yields across the world as far as i can tell, run us through your rationale here. >> even if the economic crisis is coming, the state of european companies or international companies are very good. the balance sheets remain quite healthy. the recent default remains. we find good value in high yields. we are positive on high yield with equity is very low. >> would you distinguish between any of the regions around the world when you look at that rationale? it seems to be pretty overarching. >> the point is we are, overall we are seeing the economic slowdown they are facing shock them. it will be suddenly very, very painful. we have to keep in mind, the

jackie will join us later from the united states. greece has seen a strong take-up of its bond swap offer. according to a greek government official speaking to reuters, the pace has been pretty good and the percentage of bondholders agreeing is what they describe as very high. private bondholders have until 2100 cet tonight to sign up for the debt swap that aims to wipe around 75% of the value of their holdings. reports suggest that so is far half of the country's creditors have agreed to participate. the government has 75% of bondholders to take part. it will announce the results at 7:00 cet tomorrow morning, that's 6:00 gmt. the commission has urged private bo bondholders warning the alternative would be much worse. olli rehn says it's an init dispensable element to assure the future stability of greece and the euro area as a whole. julian, chief u.s. economist at barclays capital, joins us are for the first hour of the program. there's sort of an expectation in the markets right now, a higher expectation we'll get over sort of the

yeah, looks like pressure in the united states, as well. the futures are lower indicating a lower open on wall street. if the markets were to open now, the dow would be lower by 88 1/2, the nasdaq by 19, and the s&p 500 lower by just about 10. this after the u.s. markets closed lower yesterday, but well off the session lows, but the major issue yesterday impacting the markets here are those fed minutes, the latest from the fomc that qe-3 may be less likely than previously thought. ross, back over to you. >>> let's move to the ecb discussion. outside the headquarters in frankfurt as they deliberate, whether they should be thinking about exiting from the ltro program. they won't be happy to see that spanish auction result, silvia. how do you think that will focus their minds? >> reporter: i don't think they will be happy, but i don't think they will be surprised either. right at the moment, even when we just -- when some of the ecb council members like the germans throwing things like we have to think about an exit strategy into the ring. i t

the northeast is a larger portion of the united states economy. the hit that we took from sandy in terms of economic effects appears to be larger. so i do think that we'll see a sharper falling off in employment growth than is generally anticipated. >> what happens to sort of government employment versus sort of private? >> i think the public jobs had sgroen in the earlier two months. we saw a little bit of a pull back in the october data. my guess is in the immediate after math of sandy, we also had the election going on, probably a small drop in government employment not going to affect the headline number significantly. >> and construction employment had been up for five straight honesties. you'd think post sandy we would get a bigger boost. >> we may see more of that boost in december simply because of the timing of when the survey occurred. we haven't seent pick up in terms of the recovery crews. but the net effect of sandy i think we'll see some additional improvement in construction which as we've discussed before has been a lagging industr

. >> egypt gets $1.3 billion in military aid from the united states every year. it's been a very important relationship over the years. how is that going to evolve. >> i believe our relations with the united states haves to sustained and strengthened. it is not in our interests to have a shaky relations shhip wi the united states. i believe it is the same from the american side. so this is not the time to talk about the relations negatively. >> european union is the largest trade partner, a principal source of fdi. now you've tableded the concept of a virtual relationship or membership. what does that entail? >> what i need is your help in how to build an administration. a new framework of economy, framework of several things that have proved to be so useful in the case of turkey and other countries that have requested membership and did that really get it. to introduce new rules that have proven to be very effective in rebuilding a government or a government systems. >> there was moussa. remember israel as a talking point has served as a bit of a punching bag fo

futures at this early hour in the united states, we are pointing to a positive start at the moment. the dow currently trading some 6 points above fair value. the nasdaq up about 15. the s&p 500 trading up just over 6 points above fair value. as far as the ftse, cnbc global 300, it is up. european stocks ended flat yesterday after an initial boost and then spanish bond yields heading higher again. we'll get on to that. ftse 100 up 2 points. down 2 points yesterday. the dax up 10 points. the xetra dax up 64.10. the crack upac up 25.90. italy above the 6% mark, spain up about 6.6%. we higher this morning up towards 6.7%. has just put some upward pressure on bund yields. still slow at 1.36. euro/dollar, we just reclaimed the 1.25 level. we were below the 1.25 about an hour ago. dollar/yen steady. sterling/dollar at 1.55. that's where we stand right now here in europe. what about the asian trading day? >> thank you, ross. asian markets beat a sharp retreat as investor optimism over the bank bailout weighed. volume remained thin ahead of next week's fomc and g-20 meetings. the shanghai co

a pick up in hiring in the united states. also the revenue establistabili. >> i'm cure just to know is the job growth temporary, full-time positions. because that's two very different things. >> makes a big difference to what they're saying about that pick up in jobs hiring. u.s. agenda, is there anything other than the election today? certainly no economic data as you might expect. there are some earnings out. i have a feeling they might get swamped. cable vision, cvs, care mark, dish network, aol and news corp. >> it's interesting because for some of these companies or for companies in general when they're reporting, they don't always love the scrutiny. so reporting on election day is, that a benefit or a hurt? >> news corp would have known it was the u.s. election, so she decided to release their results on the day of election day. >> we are in the thick of earnings season. but nevertheless, it's more fun. >> they decided to do it on purchase on election day. >>> coming up, how new wealth is creating new challenges for chi

obviously helped from sales in the united states and china. and then you have the latins, french and italians facing substantial issues of sales and excess capacity. fiat closed a factory in siscil, but that was done at financial costs. >> as an investor, all the political pressure to stay in italy comes potentially at what might be in the company's best interests longer term. >> i think will is really the issue. i think one of the quid pro quo for closing the plant in sicily was to actually at least bring more production back into italy from poland and this is the new one they started producing at the beginning of the year and they already announced short time working so it's still not selling. >> is that reflective of concerns in europe or does it scare with what we heard out of daimler which was talk about slowing europe and china sales trends. >> daimler and mercedes specifically highlighted problems in southern europe. that plays into fiat's main market. >> and meanwhile journalist who had the story we're talking about fiat now plans to r

we are setting up for the last trading day before christmas in the united states. weaker across the board, as you can see. this comes after a weak session on friday. a high volume weak session i would say. the market down there as investors start to price in the deal of not getting a deal struck on the fiscal cliff. sentiment hasn't improved over the weekend. >> no, it hasn't. but time to buy europe, according to the barons magazine. european stocks could rally by as much as 20% next year. in its cover story this weekend, the investor bible has picked ten stocks that it stays are undervalued, minimum downsize risk and they provide decent dividends, as well. on the list are vw volkswagen, rio tinto, rush and wpp. on the also on the list, we have deutsche plus, vivende, axa and enagas. >> it's tough to know whether to buy the handbag or the stocks from lvmh before the christmas. >> i suspect if there are any husbands out there, they would put a stock of lvmh under the tree, i'm not sure if jewelry would be equal. >> we've been asking the economist toes give us their

do you think the outcome of the eurozone debt crisis will be a united states of europe? let us know what you think. @cnbcwex, @kelly_evans, or at louisa bojesen. >> always lovely to hear from you out there. but after the credit, we'll be hearing from a credit insurer about the decision to halt all new cover on exports to greece. >>> halted credit to yees oig among concerns the country may be pushed out of the eurozone. earl why he we spoke to grant williams, risk underwriting director and asked him what prompted the decision. >> if you cross your mind back, the greece economy had its first bailout in may 2010. a lot of things we do, we're constantly monitoring all markets. we noticed in autumn of 2011 was an increase in payment notifications, slow downs, incidents to our customers in it to the greek economy and that essentially felt take we needed to advise thats of improperly dealing with this market and so it's not an overdramatic stop as reported. it's been and ongoing review. >> are you seeing the same deterioration in standards in spain as you saw in greece last fal

. >>> and the united states ben bernanke is back on capitol hill today. investors will check to see if the fed chairman changes his tune on the economy after last week's stronger than expected employment report. >>> welcome to today's program. we'll be back in greece as well today as talks are on going and we get the launch of a national strike. julia will joy us later. it is two out of three shows in a row, christine, where we are starting with corporate news and other stuff besides the debt crisis. >> why, ross, are you sick of talking about greece or the eurozone? >> i wouldn't put it quite like that. i just think it is noticeable when we can start a program without having to talk about it. >> it's nice. it's nice. it's nice for a change. i totally agree. i totally agree. markets here are still waiting for some sort of a greek deal to happen and keeping it very cautious. the shanghai market is down 1.7%. a bit of profit taking going on in this particular market, hopes for a cut in reserve pulling some of the financial stocks lower. the weakness over in

i'm jackie deangelis in the united states. >> ross westgate here in europe. up next, "squawk box" as they count down to the opening of the markets state side. whatever happens, jackie and i hope you have a profitable day. >>> good morning. it's the global economy. china aims to keep growth and inflation under control. meantime, investors in the u.s. turned their focus to friday's jobs report. crude realities, there is fear of a supply krcrunch as less cre on tighter western sanctions, plus, your money, your vote. gop presidential hopefuls preparing for the big super tuesday tomorrow. it's monday, march 5, 20 12 and "squawk" begins right now.

let's start in the united states. the dow would be lower by 17 1/2, nasdaq by nearly 4 and the s&p 500 lower by 3. this of course after stocks kicked off the first trading day in the second quarter to a very upbeat note. better than manufacturing data helping to boost stocks yesterday after we got disappointing numbers out of the eurozone. interesting to note in terms of some stock day it take, apple up nearly 19 bucks yesterday, about a 3% gain there. also some of the did dow leaders and top contributors chevron and boeing. >> we finished a positive session yesterday. now 5:4 on the dow jones stoxx 600. ftse up 1.8%. right now pretty flat despite performance by construction. cac 40 down six. ibex down 0.75%. euro-dollar, we headed down to a one week low yesterday. we're before that at 1.3352. dollar-yen steady. aussie dollar has weakened a little bit. there's expectations the rba in australia will cut rates next month after not cutting today. and sterling holding on to those 4 1/2 month highs against the dollar. just

we'll start in the united states. u.s. futures, we were a little lower before and how it looks like we're hugging the flat line. no clear direction here in the united states of course after our big selloff yesterday with the dow down 130 points. and we are seeing a little bit of mixed sentiment across the board this tin the european an markets. >> 9:1 decliners outpacing advancers for the stoxx 600. 2.5% for the german market, 3% for the cac. continued those losses beginning of this week. ftse 100 down around 0.75%. ibex in spain down 0.9%. this market is back to levels that we last saw in 2009, below 7600, but we'll keep our focus really. the best gauge of really where investors feel at the moment, keep your eye on the spreads between bunds and spanish ten year yields. german ten year bund yields below 1.7%, 1.699%. we hit a record low in september last year, 1.634%. this is the record low here. we're nearly back down on it. that means the spread between these two is well over 400 basis points, around 415 basis points as

the united states would like them to take over a role, at the same time the united states is reluctant to allow china to take over a leadership role in part because the u.s. frankly hates to see leadership over something that the united states has been a dominant force in for a very long period of time. >> i want to ask you a question about japan. some western commentators have said that finally the moment is coming when the debt will be fully monetize d. >> a number of people have been predicts significant changes in the domestic economy for a very long period of time and it hasn't happened yesterday. who knows when that moment are will strike. they thought this might be the moment in which japan finally opened up its domestic economy. and they thought that noda might be the man to do so, but he even found it a challenge. >> and the consumption tax will be something people are watching. >> it's been very digt. they might go through with it, but it might bring down his government. he can only fight one of these enormous battles at once. >> remind me, how many prime ministers are there